Showing posts with label rudd (golden). Show all posts
Showing posts with label rudd (golden). Show all posts

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Leaping Bream and the Elusive Pumpkinseed


As I had a day off work I decided to visit Tanyard Fishery in Sussex to catch the rare pumpkinseed fish, which are found in numbers at this fishery. The pumpkinseed was first brought into Britain from America as an ornamental fish about 100 years ago and by 1917 there were established colonies in several Sussex stillwaters.

After a conversation with the bailiff I set up on the Carp Free Pool float fishing maggot in the margin and felt confident being told that I should catch several during a day. Twelve hours and 200-300 bream, gudgeon, perch,roach, ruddrudd (golden) and tench later, not one pumpkinseed fish had succumbed! I had fished several swims fishing the margins, alongside trees and marginal reeds. Were the pumpkinseeds spawning or just off the feed?

Have you ever noticed the metallic blue sheen that the gudgeon has, nor had I before now. This species hunt has made me look at and appreciate even the 'tiddlers'. Did you know that the Edwardians had gudgeon parties where ladies fished for and then enjoyed a dish of fried gudgeon cooked whole like whitebait.

I had been told of bream leaping on the end of the line before but dismissed it out of hand, however today I experienced this myself with bream in the 1-2 pound class. They still fight like a wet sack however!


Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Return to Boyhood

 Every angler should take a break from pursuing monsters and return to boyhood and spend a day float fishing an overstocked little pond where it's a bite a chuck.

At Anglers Paradise the float lake is one such water and Zyg has stocked this lake with a wide variety of ornamental species. I decided to spend a couple of hours float fishing for whatever came along. 

I picked a swim with seven foot of water just off the rod tip next to some reeds. The rules stipulate a minimum beaking strain of 4lb and size 14 hook so I set up a 2BB Insert Waggler with an olivette just above the hooklength and size 10 dropper shot to try and get the hookbait down to the better quality fish.

I decided to fish crucian style initially feeding four walnut sized balls of swim stim groundbait loaded with 3ml pellets, topping up the swim with another ball every twenty minutes or so.

Fishing three maggots it was a bite a cast and often the bait was taken on the drop by a golden rudd. Personally I found golden rudd rather odd looking fish. When the bait got down through the rudd, blue orfe, golden tench, goldfish in all colours, koi and ghost carp responded. A change to a small cube of luncheon meat improved the average size and goldfish in particular responded to this bait.

For many years wild coloured goldfish were sold by unscrupulous fish farmers as crucian carp and stocked into so many fisheries that the true crucians have become quite rare. No such pretence here with golfish being found in all colours and shapes from wild coloured goldlfish to vivid orange fantails. Interestingly goldfish like their cousins the crucian carp are infuriating in that many bites are missed.

 I enjoyed my return to boyhood so much that I did it all again on the last day of the holiday